Links (6/18/08)

Links from my compulsive trolling of the interwebs:

Behold! The future eco-city. Some very very cool stuff in there.

And then there’s this. Stereoscopy photographs turned into animated GIFs. [h/t Joan]

A new law in Japan declares any guy with a 34″ waist to be overweight and will force anyone not conforming to these national guidelines to “guidance” and possibly “re-education”. Average waist size for Americans? 39 inches.

Speaking of strange stories coming from Japan, try this one. Hiroshi Nozaki killed a Filipina hostess and stuffing the body parts in a coin locker. Eight years ago, he was charged with, you guessed it, chopping up a Filipina hostess and trying to flush it down the toilet. Link

And even more from Japan, Diet member Yukihisa Fujita has publicly questioned the official version of the events of 9/11. He’s one of a number of politicians now doing so and one senses more will in the future.

An article about Objectum-Sexual, featuring a woman in love with the Berlin Wall. [via Boing Boing]

A hilarious review of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Happening. [h/t Ted]

A fascinating article about the dangerous world of artificial diamond production. [via Boing Boing]

A blog entry on Watanabe Kasumi’s photo book Gangs of Kabukicho. [h/t Ted]

Tony Jaa quite literally kicks ass.

Speaking of that, here’s a list of action heroes that probably should be brought up on murder charges.

This is depressing. [h/t Joan]

Who knew that laughing babies in slo mo would be so disturbing.

The reason why your life is going to hell, if you’re white, middle class, and straight.

Existential Panic World Tour Part 1: Taipei

I’m at a bank of computers in the Taipei train station apparently intended for bored weary travelers to kill time cruising the net. Being in a place like this one certainly gets a feeling of future-shock. Soon such places will probably be common place but for the moment there’s still a bit of a William Gibsonsque thrill to the whole thing.

Taipei is, in a word, hot. I spent most of the day hiking from this notably temple to that and by the end of the day I felt as if my shirt were floating on a layer of sweat.

The city itself is dirty and chaotic. The traffic here is downright dangerous–in America there’s always an assumption that drivers won’t run over pedestrians if only to avoid damaging their cars, here, judging from the number of dents and dings in Taipei’s fleet of taxis, I make no such assumptions. Nonetheless, the longer I’m here, this is my second visit, the more I’m finding things like street vendors selling everything from chicken feet to pirated T-shirts more charming than annoying. (At one nightmarket I found a T-shirt that I think was supposed to read “Ice Cream” but instead read “IRL CFPAM”) Moreover, the neighbor in which Emily’s grandmother lives, which has retained much of the older architecture from the Japanese occupation is actually pretty.

Anyway, E is growing impatient so I best be on my sweaty way. I will write again soon, either from here or from Kathmandu.